Of Xs and Ys
by Roy Rainyday
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto is not just an orphan who happens to hold the Kyuubi inside of him. He's also quite popular among the ladies. Life is not without its ups and downs, but things have been going well for the blonde until one of his exes decided to crash into his life. Yes, 'one of his exes', you heard that right. M for safety. Open to suggestions.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, before we start, I just want to say a few things.**

 **First and foremost, I apologize for not updating any stories at all over the past few weeks or months. Things have become a little hectic with my exams and school, there's nothing I can do about that. I still have exams until June, or mid-June depending on the schedule I was given, so I might not be able to update any stories.**

 **Second… yet here I am, with another new story.**

 **Yaaay…**

 **You guys may be sick of me for doing this kind of thing every now and then. Well, unfortunately, I can't help it. Inspiration is a fleeting thing. Easy come, easy go they said… So, now that I've made that clear, I hope that this piece of idea will somehow appeal all of you. It's kind of rare to see a Naruto x Kantai Collection story since both universes has little to none in common, but here is my take on it. The idea may be new, but it may also seem awkward as first since it's going to take a lot of thinking in order to figure out the whole thing out.**

 **So please see and give this a chance, I'll upload more after I finish my exams… that also goes for the rest of my stories!**

* * *

"Nagato-san, where should I put the boxes?"

"Right over there, Naruto-kun, by the table where the other boxes are at."

"Sure."

He drops the cardboard boxes gently, careful as to not cause any damage to the boxes. He stretches his back by twisting his body sideways for a moment and then wiping the sweat that threatened to drop from his forehead. It's a hot season in Fire Country, then again, when has it never been hot? The blonde haired, whiskered Jinchuriki glances at his client, who's currently busy going through some papers on a clipboard. He's gotten this job on the spot and figured out that he'll make a little money out of it. With the help of his cloning ability, he's doing the job of a mover. The people who moves people's stuffs when they move in to another place? Yeah, that sort of job. It's not bad, the pay should be enough to cover at least five bowls of ramen. And that's more than a lot for him.

Small yet echoey sound of footsteps are heard coming from the hallway from the living room. Another carbon and exact copy of Naruto emerges from the corridor, a satisfied expression on his face.

"Hey boss, we're done furnishing the living room. The rest of the guys are just waiting for your orders to dispel." The clone says to his original, giving a small flick.

"Yeah, tell 'em that they can dispel now." The real Naruto responds to his clone's information. He then turns his head sideways, focusing on the other person in the room. "Hey Nagato-san, you heard the guy, we're done here."

This woman, Nagato, no last name, is a woman from the capital city of Fire Country. He's never been to the capital, but if they're filled with beautiful women like Nagato-san, then he's bound to visit sometime soon when he's gathered up enough savings for a ride and pass inside the city. Something tells him that Nagato is not just your normal beautiful woman either. For once, she's tall, even taller than Kakashi-sensei. She has this cool and quiet atmosphere radiating off her. Her face, though she's a girl, has this rather masculine feeling when looked at. He blames his teenage hormones for this next one, but… man those _things_ are huge! Her hair's long, reaching down to her waist and it's probably as soft as silk, if he's to guess from the shine it's reflecting.

She makes the jeans and shirt she wears look good and she carries around a brown leather bag behind her, probably where she stores some important stuffs.

"Ah, are you now?" taking her eyes off the clipboard, she takes a moment to look at the boy. "That's pretty quick, it seems that you shinobis are a lot more efficient than I thought."

Naruto frowns, but not from being offended. Instead, it's more from confusion. "You sound as if you've never met a shinobi before. Don't they have any ninjas in the Capital?"

Nagato shrugs her shoulders. "There might be, maybe, I do not know. It's a rare to see people from Konoha, and those who moved there are mostly those without shinobi backgrounds."

Naruto scratches his cheek, before shaking his heads while his arms are crossed. "I wouldn't count on that out yet, Nagato-san. There's really no telling whether or not those people who came from here to stay in the capital are ninjas or not. We're ninjas after all."

His statement makes Nagato think. "True… but even if I did talk to one, I guess that they might have been undercover." Nagato then places her clipboard on the shelf in the kitchen. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh, sure."

"Good. Go wait in the living room; I'll get them ready for us."

Naruto leaves the kitchen to head outside. He makes his way to the living, sitting on the couch that he – well, technically, it was his clones – arranged to fit nicely along with the other furniture in the house. The blonde haired and blue eyed genin looks around and he has to admit of doing quite a good job on decorating the place. He's done jobs like this previously, even before entering the academy. Those days were tough, especially when the people here dislike him for being a Jinchuriki. He never knows why they even bother on hiring at all if that's the case.

This house is located on the western side of Konoha, just where the residential district is at. Normally, it would seem a lot more logical to pay for an apartment since it's the most common form of housing rather than standard homes, a lot cheaper and convenient too. It seems that money isn't a problem for Nagato-san and folks from the Capital are probably used to living in houses rather than apartments. This house in particular is located next to the market district, which separates the eastern and western part of the village. Getting this house must have cost a lot of money.

He's only done the furniture, but not the real décor. Nagato-san's personal belongings are still in the boxes that he dropped off in the kitchen earlier and she said that she'll do the extra decorations herself. It's his first time getting a client who's not from Konoha, and that makes him a little nervous. Actually, he's somewhat excited. Being a genin, he doesn't leave the village that often, the last time he left the village for more than a day was when he had to escort Tazuna back to Wave country.

Yeah, not something he wants to remember.

But anyway, it's pretty curious as to what a person from the Capital is doing in a ninja village even if it's Konoha. Just as he is about to resume with his thoughts, his trained ears pick up footsteps from the corridor and Nagato emerges, entering the living room with a tray and two cups on said tray. She sets the tray on the coffee table in front of the couch and she takes few glances here and there.

"I have to say, you've done a great job at furnishing the living room." She comments as she then sits down on the opposite sofa. "Are the rooms upstairs furnished too?"

"Yup, all done and pretty." Naruto confirms while reaching for the steaming cup of tea at the same time. He takes a sniff of the aroma, and his nose is overcome by a familiar scent. "Lavender? Exotic…"

Seeing him recognizing what type of tea she's just served makes Nagato smile. "You drink tea often?"

Naruto shakes his head after taking a few small sips from the hot cup. "Not really, but I'm quite familiar with plants. I have a few patches of lavender's on my apartment roof. I considered making tea out of them but they make nice mosquito repellent when burned and they smell nice too, so…"

Nagato lets out a few chuckles of amusement upon seeing him struggle to voice out his reason. "Smart, as expected from a ninja."

Hearing her praise makes Naruto blush a little, this is a clue suggesting that he's not familiar with being praised. "Thanks…" the boy rubs the back of his head in a sheepish manner.

"You're welcome."

Then they enjoy their respective cup of teas in silent, after a while and a cup of tea later, Naruto breaks the silence again.

"Say, if you don't mind me asking, Nagato-san… what are you doing here in Konoha?"

"Me? Now what brings that up?" Nagato raises her eyebrow a few centimeters taller than usual.

"Just wondering." The blonde shrugs. "Someone from the capital would only come here for the tour… but not only did you come here, you also bought a house." his face scrunches up. "It's not often for something like that to happen."

"The tourism part or the buying a house part?"

"The buying a house part."

Nagato hums, cluing that she's actually giving his question a thought. The woman stretches her arms, before relaxing on the sofa once again. "If you really want to know… I've decided to come here for a vacation." She said with a sure tone. "But after a lot of thinking, I decided to make my stay here permanent. I've heard many things about Konoha, mostly about how militaristic this village is but it's also a nice place to live. As I've said before, we don't really _have_ ninjas back in the Capital, so I'm also a little bit curious regarding that."

"You move here because you're curious about… ninjas?" the blonde cannot help but to tilt his head a little.

"…Quite." Nagato admits, chuckling a little. "I also have a sister living here, in fact, she should be here later today. So you can say that I'm also here to catch up with my little sister whom I haven't seen for a long while."

"Ah, I see." Naruto briefly glances to the clock that his clone hung on the wall of the living room. He then stands, after finishing his cup of tea. "Well, it seems that it's time for me to leave. I'll go and report back. Thank you for the tea, Nagato-san." He gives her a bright grin. "See you later!"

Nagato smiles back in return, waving at the blonde. She looks as Naruto exits her front door and then seeing said door closing. She sighs, though the smile remains on her face.

"It's off to a good start…"

But not exactly a quite one either.

* * *

"Maaan I'm beat…!"

Talking can really past the time. It was just around one thirty when he arrived at Nagato-san's house but it's already four when he exited. It doesn't help when they had tea to further prolong his duration in her house, but that's fine though since he enjoys talking. Especially when it's with beautiful women like Nagato-san.

He's now walking with a stupid grin on his face. Yeah, he's a simple man. Or boy, whatever.

"Oh yeah, I have a guy's night out with the gang today!" he realized as he's walking in the middle of a crowded street. Naruto then glances at the sky and a little bit of his worry is lifted. "I can still get there if I run!"

He really needs to manage his time better.

He promised some of his friends that they'll hang out sometime today, and that sometime is actually five minutes later. The place is their usual hangout spot, the Yakini-Q, a nice Yakiniku restaurant that's quite popular here in Konoha. Thankfully, the place is actually not far from where he's at as he's almost near the market district. He can just not attend the event and say that he had a mission to do, but he doubts that it'll work this time since Kiba is looking forward to hanging out with the rest of the guys. He doesn't want to make his friends sad and be a jerk by not attending the meet, it'll be a dick move from him, hell even more than what the Uchiha normally does.

As he walks, he starts to see people about his age dressed in white and navy blue school uniforms. It then clicks inside his head. The civilian school ended not too long ago, explaining why there are students walking home at this hour. He watches as a group of student consisting of both genders laughing as they walk past him. Looking at the scene makes him feel a little upset. It just goes to show how easy civilians have it, when compared to academy students like he was. Back then, when he was still in the academy, he'll always be home late due to evening practices.

Not that he's complaining or anything, but it consumed a lot of his time trying to make friends. Well, it's not like he'll have a chance even if he was sent home earlier either. So finding friends outside of the academy was hard for him, and it's a lot harder inside. It didn't help when he was considered the 'dead-last' of the batch, meaning that he was the only one who graduated with the lowest overall score.

However, he took a rather _special_ test to make up for it.

Mizuki did him good, playing with his brains like that. He'll admit that it was pretty dumb for him to just believe the man like that. Stealing the forbidden Scroll of Sealing from the Hokage tower… yeah right, totally an exam alternative. Thinking about that incident makes him feel dumb, and he'll admit, he is still kind of dumb now too. Thanks to that incident, he got to meet his tenant; the giant fluffy nine tailed demon fox sealed in his gut. He won't be speaking with the fox anytime soon, but he knows that he will, someday. He's also gotten a little smarter, how's that for contradiction?

Iruka-sensei drilled him real hard after that incident. He scolded him like he's never scolded him before and, needless to say; it did a number on him. That was his moment of realization, one could say. He took this path not because he wants to get famous, he become a ninja because he wants to become Hokage, get acknowledged and protect Konoha as his home village. His naïve brain thinks that there are no nobler goals than that, and even so, that's fine. He'll work his way from the bottom first, and then enjoy the rewards later.

During the announcements, he was grouped with the Uchiha and Sakura-chan. He would've preferred if it is just him and Sakura but the bastard has his uses, he'll admit that. But Kakashi, man… he knows that he's an awesome guy, his battle with Zabuza at Wave showed that much, but he can be such a lazy ass sometimes! He can probably rival a Nara in that ground… yeah, something he'll like to see. That gives him a good idea. Why don't he try to pit Shikamaru and Kakashi on a challenge to see who's the laziest? Man it'll be epic…

As he walks with his mind drifting in its own musing, the streets take on a livelier atmosphere. He's no longer at the housing residence part of Konoha; he's at the market district now, where all the good things are at. Well, not all, but there's still good things here. The vendors are just as busy as any other shops around here. Their produces are commonly food and other commonly sold items like trinkets, odds and other general items. He's familiar with the place due to his younger days of living in the streets. Ever since the orphanage kicked him out, he's been roaming the streets living on ghettos and run downed buildings like that old shop by the corner. Not a very nice memory to reminisce about, but it's exactly that kind of life that's shaped him into what he is today. It may not be beautiful or anything, but it's nostalgic.

The young man's musing has finally brought his trip to an end without having to feel time. He reaches his destination, Yakini-Q restaurant. Kiba and the gang are probably already inside. Wasting no time, the blonde haired Jinchuriki steps into the restaurant. Unsurprisingly, no one greeted him the moment he enters. And he can see why.

The place is packed for the evening, Kiba probably called in for reservation. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten a table. He takes a moment to look around, trying to spot his friends.

"Yo, Naruto! Over here!"

Looks like there's no need for efforts after all.

Naruto sees a hoodie wearing brown haired boy with red fang tattoos on his cheeks waving at him from the table at the corner most area of the restaurant. Naruto waves his hand, telling the boy that he'll be there in a second. The blonde makes his way through the busy floor, evading waiters and waitresses who are working to fulfill customers' orders.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." The first he does when he arrives is apologizing. "I had a mission earlier today."

"Nah, it's okay man, as long as you arrive." Kiba says with a dismissive gesture. "Chouji, scooch over."

The aforementioned boy does as he is instructed, letting Naruto sit on the space beside him. "So what's the deal Kibbles?" Naruto asks with a playful grin. "Being the only boy in the family finally makes you lonely or something?"

Kiba, instead of getting offended, merely responds to the blonde's grin with a smirk. "Hahaha." He mocks. "At least I get to be with girls more than you ever do, whiskers." They share a laugh over the joke. "But, jokes aside, I called this meet in just so that we could discuss about our teams. I got stuck with Shino, Hinata and a total babe for a sensei, how about you blondie?"

Seeing Kiba's smirk growing makes Naruto's own grin stretch. He knows that Kiba's asking him to get a good laugh. He's stuck with a stuck up of an Uchiha and his loyal fan girl… and a lazy ass for a sensei. What's there not to talk about? Sarcasm heavy there…

"I have the honor of being in the same team as our revered Uchiha prince," If Kiba's looking for a laugh then it's a laugh he'll give. "his faithful entourage and a brave one eyed sensei. Although it's not as awesome as being in a team with a babe for a sensei like yours, we're still gonna kick your ass on every spar, doggy."

"Hah!" Kiba scoffs, looking at Naruto with amusement on his face. "We'll see about that, for now, oi Shika." He sends his attention to the fourth boy who's sleeping with his head slumped on the table. The Inuzuka pokes the pineapple haired boy on the side of his head with his finger, trying to get him to wake up. "Wake up, we're about to order food!"

"Urgh…" a tired, lazy and unwilling groan escapes the mouth of the now awaken Nara. Said Nara gazes lazily and sleepily at the table's occupants. His vision then catches something orange and yellow. "Oh, the troublesome blonde is here. 'sup."

Naruto waves a hand without saying anything.

"Just let Chouji order for me." his sleepy eyes narrows. "Just make sure to leave some for me, and yes I'm talking to you Chouji."

"Hehehe…" the Akimichi merely looks down in embarrassment. He's still embarrassed over what happened a few weeks ago, during their last hangout session. He ate all of the meat, leaving not even a strand of fat for Shikamaru. "Okay, I'll try to hold back."

"Don't try, please hold back."

The group orders three set meals for the yakiniku, meaning that they'll get three serving of sliced beef. They also order several servings of vegetables to go along with the meat. As for the drinks, they ordered root beers. While it's okay to order alcohol, since they're ninjas, it's wiser not to do so because they're still minors. Besides, Shika's mom will kill him if she figures out that he drinks sake.

In the middle of waiting, Chouji breaks the silence. "Say, Naruto."

The boy in question is currently in the process of chugging his root beer. It's a huge mug, so it'll take a while to even reach half of the content. The blonde raises his eyebrows, silently signaling that he's paying attention.

"You've had girlfriends before, right?"

In the middle of his drinking, he attempts to nod his head carefully as to not spill any drop.

"Does one of them happen to have silver hair and a very mean scowl?"

The blonde finally finishes drinking. "…how did you know?" his voice is really small.

"Well, she's looking at you right now. See?" everyone follows the direction of Chouji's figure, and it points to the entrance of the restaurant.

They all see a shorter and most definitely more feminine somebody looking, no, _glaring_ at them from the entrance of the restaurant. Chouji doesn't have to be very descriptive, because what he's said nailed the mark. The person has silver hair, a long one at that, reaching down to her waist level. Her expression could only be described as a 'very mean scowl' because that's what it exactly is right now. She's wearing a unique sailor uniform that none of the boys – sans Naruto – have ever seen before. Instead of being a two piece uniform with the blouse and skirt, hers is actually incorporated into one, similar to that of a one piece dress. The red tie tied around the neck and underneath the navy blue and white stripped collar is also longer than the ones seen on normal female school uniforms. White is the color that dominates her attire, and navy blue seconds that. She may be beautiful, but there's no denying that her tangerine eyes are glaring at them.

Or Naruto, in particular.

"Oh hey look she's coming this way."

"Kiba." Naruto hisses out through gritted teeth. "Let's ditch this place."

"No way man, I so wanna see this!"

Naruto sighs heavily, feeling a headache suddenly hitting his head. "So much for friends…"

The girl who has been observing the group finally arrives at the corner of their table. It is now sure that she's been glaring at the blonde Uzumaki throughout all this time. Hesitantly, Naruto gives the girl a very crooked and forced smile. "Hey there Murakumo, long time no see."

The girl's expression does not change, it remains a scowl. "Hello there mister _ex-boyfriend_ , mind telling me why haven't you been visiting lately?"

The others, minus Shikamaru since he's asleep, watch the scene with amusement.

"Eh… isn't it normal for us not to speak again since we broke up?" Naruto asks with real confusion in his tone and face.

"I suppose." Her expression relaxes, but her eyes are still aimed at the orange wearing blonde. "Still, that's not an excuse. Now, tell me, why haven't you been visiting?"

"Uh…" Naruto looks around. Kiba is making no attempt to hide his smirk and Chouji is giving him an awkward smile. Shika is still out. "I… uh… I've been busy with ninja stuffs, yeah, that's it."

His attempt to reason is crushed when Murakumo openly scoffs at his poor attempt in making one. "Like I'll believe that. You've been hitting on other girls haven't you? I heard from my friends that you're seen walking around the village with girls, fess up."

Naruto blinks. "Walking with girls… what the – look, I haven't been talking to girls for the past few weeks." Well, at least girls within his age range since Nagato-san is an adult. "And even if I did walk with a girl, why should you care?"

' _He didn't just…'_ both Chouji and Kiba thought as one.

The corner of the silver haired girl's lips twitch, forming a rather intimidating smile. She's smiling, but there's nothing good radiating from it. Her arms crossed over her chest, Murakumo taps her foot on the floor. " _Ohohoho_ … my ex-boyfriend is getting a little cocky after he broke up with me, huh? What would your friends think about the time whe-mmmmpph!"

" _Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!"_ like an apple, Naruto's face is very red. He lashes at the girl with his hands covering her mouth. "You promised not to ever speak about that again!"

Murakumo pries his hands off her mouth. She allows a smug smirk to form on her face. Oh how she loves seeing men at the weakened state… "We're not a couple anymore, remember? _Why should I care?_ "

Naruto makes a face of defeat, he heaves deeply before letting out the air in the form of one huge sigh. "Fine, you win." He looks at his friends. "Guys, hope you don't mind her joining us." Naruto scooches over, allowing Murakumo to sit beside him. He's now sitting between Chouji and his ex.

"No, no I don't. Not in the slightest."

"Wipe that stupid grin off your face doggy."

Chouji's face turns into delight when he spots a tray carrying waiter walking over to them. "Guys, our food's here! Naruto, turn on the heat."

"Meh…" The blonde casually turns on the gas stove, heating up the grill.

"So, Murakumo-san, if you don't mind me asking… what's your story with the idiot over here?" Kiba asks as the waiter places the raw beef and vegetables on the table. "We all know that he had girlfriends before but this's the first time for us to meet one of them."

Murakumo flicks a strand of silver hair off her face, allowing her eyes to get a clear look at the Inuzuka. "Story? It's nothing as silly as those 'love at first sight' cliché that happens in manga. We knew each other because he happened to be close with one of my sisters. He was helping her with a few things and he _approached_ me." she smiles coyly. "Yeah, that's right; he's the one who made the first move."

"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto is not amused. "Rub it all in…"

"We talked for a little bit, then he asked if it's okay to visit once in a while." Her smirk does not lose its amusement. "Ever since then he's been visiting, then one day, we're going out."

The sound of pork lard being melted on the grill emits a rather satisfying sizzling noise, much more so when the beef is cooked. As usual, the boys leave all the cooking to Chouji. Meanwhile, Kiba is engaging in a conversation with Murakumo and Naruto. Shikamaru is still asleep.

"Which school do you go to, Murakumo-san?" Kiba asks.

"I attend Teito High." She answers casually. "My sisters are there too, all of us attend different classes though."

"Have you ever been to their school, Naruto?" the dog loving boy directs the question to his blonde friend.

"A few times, most of the time I was there to pick her up from school." The blonde answers with a light grumble.

"How 'boyfriend' like of you, whiskers."

"Fuck you Kibbles."

Murakumo sees their interaction with a small smile. When she was still dating Naruto, she's never seen him talk like this. Nor has she seen him with his friends at all. Now, it's a little bit amusing to see him talking with his friends.

"Hey, Murakumo, you eating or what?"

"Oh, yes, in a second." She snaps herself from her inner musings. Naruto offers her a bowl of rice, as well as a pair of chopsticks. She utters a small 'ittadakimasu' before reaching over to grab some of the beef strips that's all cooked on the grill. "Naruto, pass me the soy sauce."

"Here."

"Thank you."

"Yeah."

Kiba watches with disappointment on his face, his chopsticks are inches away from his rice. "Is this how you guys normally look like during a date?"

Both exes look at the Inuzuka at the same time. "Yes/Yeah."

"If so, then I can see why you guys broke up." He then begins eating. "Speaking of which, why did you guys broke up anyway?"

Simultaneous 'clinks' are heard. Naruto nearly drops his chopsticks to the floor, managed to stop it just before it falls off the table. Murakumo nearly drops her bowl; thankfully, she's managed to prevent it from happening.

"…Eh…"

"…"

Kiba immediately regrets asking that question. He looks downwards, hiding his face. "Sorry."

"No worries, we got over each other a long time ago so we get that a lot." It is Murakumo who answered, surprisingly. "Besides, it's better this way…" she trails off, quietly picking up beads of rice with her chopsticks.

Kiba observes his blonde friend being uncharacteristically silent throughout the whole thing. It's obvious that something big happened when they broke up, but Kiba's not a hound dog, so he won't be sniffing past the line. The group eats in uncomfortable silence. Shikamaru wakes up to eat his fill, he doesn't even bother questioning who the new girl is and Chouji doesn't order any extras because there's really no use in prolonging the awkwardness of the atmosphere.

* * *

Dinner is also quick and now, all that's left to do is to pay for the bill.

"Okay, let's split the bill."

"Ah, let me pay too-"

"No, it's fine." Naruto stops whatever attempt that Murakumo is making to reach inside her school bag to find her purse. "I'll pay for her portion."

"Hey, there's no need for that!"

"Just let me do it." Naruto cuts her off again, putting twice the amount of money to cover up Murakumo's expenses.

"…fine then." Murakumo says without a single hint of her previous insistency. "I guess I'll go now." She walks away without even saying goodbye.

"Pst." Naruto glances at Kiba. "Go get 'er."

"Heh." Naruto grins. Giving his feral friend a thumb up, Naruto then exits the restaurant.

Once outside, the enigmatic blonde catches up to his fleeing ex-girlfriend who is already away from the area. "Wait, Murakumo!" She does not stop walking. "Oi! Don't ignore me damnit!" he catches up to her, keeping his pace so that he can walk alongside her.

"Do you have any more business with me, mister ex-boyfriend?" it's hard to tell whether she's being sarcastic or seriously mad. Usually, Murakumo is pretty obvious when she's angry, but now, not anymore it seems like.

"Hey, don't sound like that… you make me sound like I did something horrible that even Buddha himself won't forgive." the Uzumaki frowns. "What were you doing there anyway? Your school's on the other part of town, hell your house's further than that."

"Hmph." The girl looks away sassily, something that she normally does. "I wanted to take a walk around the village, why, concerned that your ex-girlfriend was walking alone with no one to look out for her?"

Unfortunately for Murakumo, Naruto is not so easy when it comes to baiting. "…let me change my question then. How did you find me?"

"It wasn't hard." She says. "I just had to look out for a guy with a stupid face then I know it's you without a single doubt."

' _Ouch.'_ Man, she's still salty. "Look, Murakumo, can we… talk?" he stops dead in his tracks, his voice falling few decibels lower.

After three steps, it's the silver haired girl's turn to stop walking. She hasn't turned around to give him an answer yet, but he hears her taking in a deep breath. "We can talk."

Naruto perks up.

"But I don't want to."

He flinches.

"I know that, if we talk, we're going to talk about the reason why you broke up with me. I know it." She turns around, showing him her indifferent face. "You told me before, more than once even, that you broke up with me because of your new job. I get that, in fact, I understand. Your job's going to be so time consuming that you won't even have time for me, your job's going to be so dangerous that there might be chance for me to get involved, your job will get you killed and you don't want me to feel sad if you died one day."

There is no shouting involved, but Naruto feels as if he's been pierced by millions of Haku's needle all over his body… again.

"I get those 'I don't want to involve you in my job' reasons! I get that!" now she's raising her voice. "But what I don't get is why… why don't you believe me when I said that we'll be fine." Her voice cracks, emotions begin to flow out. "Don't you believe in me, Naruto? Do you think that I'm just like those love struck high school girls that you used to date? Well, just in case you don't know, I'm not. Never was, and I will never be."

Naruto cannot move, nor can he bring himself to look at Murakumo straight in the eye. Murakumo's expression visibly relaxes, realizing that she's been shouting. The silverette grips the handle of her school bag with twice the normal force used, she also bites her bottom lip lightly.

"…you did it because you don't want to see me hurt." She turns away, facing the direction she was facing moments ago. "But it's you who hurt me in the end." Dropping the mic, Murakumo walks away, not even sparing him any last look.

Naruto hangs his head, the shadows of his locks covers his eyes. The people around are still going on about their daily life, unaware of the little standoff that's happened amongst them. As children laugh, people chat and citizens wander; he's alone in the middle of the road, standing pathetically.

He doesn't get it, he doesn't.

Isn't what he did the right thing? Being a ninja, he's fully aware of the consequences and hardships that it'll bring, so he broke up with Murakumo, knowing that she may be involved if he's careless enough. He can take of himself, but he's not sure if he could keep Murakumo safe. It's because he's weak. Even during the encounter with Zabuza, his entire being was shaking from fear alone. When fighting Haku too, he relied on the fox's power instead of using his own strength. He's pathetic. So pathetic that he ended up hurting the one he was trying to protect.

In his downcast state, he makes an effort to look upwards, staring at the orange and purplish sky.

"…I'm such a fuck up."

With his hands in his pockets, he walks home.

"Ohohoho… I just saw something interesting~"

Naruto nearly trips over his two feet.

"Kids these days, so much drama~"

Naruto slowly turns his head to the source of the voice.

"My, you certainly reminded me of someone I know. A little heartbreaker at the mere age of thirteen, my, my~"

A beautiful, bodacious brown haired woman giggles amusedly at the blonde boy. This woman is, obviously, taller than the boy; her stiletto heels only make her taller. She's not your ordinary Konoha citizen and that could be seen from her attire. Unlike everyone else who's wearing casual shirts to go along with the market's atmosphere or yukata for the females, she's wearing rather revealing clothing. She wears a pair of purple hot pants, buckled with an expensive belt, her top consists of a sleeveless blouse also colored in purple, but with frills right around the edges. She wears a brown bracelet, which is made from genuine sheep leather. This charming woman truly deserves the femme fatale title. Her eye lashes are so long that she can make all men fall for her with a single wink. Her luscious lips are more than enough to make men fantasize about her and those… those… those…!

Urgh…

She giggles some more, taking several steps to approach the blonde, she then bends her knees; letting their face become inches away from each other. Instantly, Naruto catches whiff of something good. It must be her perfume. Under normal circumstances, he won't be able to stop himself for looking God's forbidden valley which is her cleavage.

"Want to come to my place?"

The boy recoils back. Not from embarrassment, but from disgust. He openly shivers, almost as if her words do nothing other than creeping him the hell out.

"NO WAY IN HELL MUTSU- **OBAASAN** , I'M TOO YOUNG FOR THAT!"

A vein pops upon the beautiful woman's features.

"Ararara… it seems that little Naruto-kun needs to be taught a lesson~ hmm~? No wonder his ex-girlfriend denied him."

 **STAB**

"Uguuh!"

"My, my, my… and from the looks of it, you regretted what you did!"

 **SLASH**

"Gah!"

"Ararara… it's hard being teenager with raging hormones now isn't it?"

Mutsu's smile of amusement never leaves her face, even when she's bottling up that anger in her. She is about to say something, but a voice disrupts her.

"Oi Naruto, you went after your… ex… girlfriend…?"

Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru arrive just in time to see Naruto together with another girl. This time, it's a woman. A hot one. Kiba, being the first one to recover from the shock, raises a shaking hand while pointing an equally shaking finger at the woman. "N-Naruto… who's that?"

"She's just a rando-gurk!" Everyone pretend that they didn't see the elbow that hit Naruto square in the gut.

Mutsu steps forward, allowing the boys to get a clearer look at her bodacious form. With a sultry smile, she winks at them. "Nice to meet you three. My name is Mutsu and I'm one of Naruto-kun's exes." Mutsu then brazenly rests her… assets on top of the blonde's golden crown, hugging him from behind. "Ufufu~"

Kiba faints.

…

…

"…Fuck."

* * *

 **Interesting? I sure hope so, especially when I decided to start the story with drama. More will be revealed, but I'm guessing that you guys can already see the pattern here. If so, please try to keep it to yourself first, I don't want anyone to ruin the surprise for those who failed to see it.**

 **Expect a lot of drama, comedy and lighthearted moments during the first few parts of the chapters; because I'm going to tell you this now, things are bound to get serious in the middle. I'm open to suggestions, but please, PM's only.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Yo dobe, you're late."

A scowling Uchiha, a seething pink haired fan girl and a porn reading sensei. Yup, his life people.

Returning the Uchiha's scowl with one of his own, Naruto doesn't bother looking at him. "Don't talk to me bastard, I'm in shit mood today."

That makes Sasuke raise an eyebrow. It's rare for the blonde to show hostility and a real one at that. He can tell when someone's lying and lying is the only thing that Naruto isn't doing. The raven haired avenger watches as his blonde haired teammate grumpily marches over to a tree stump, before proceeding to sit on said stump with a large scowl on his face. Something serious must have happened to him.

"Oi Naruto!" Sakura, however, is not a perceptive as Sasuke. She wastes no time in giving the blonde a piece of her mind. "You came here three hours late, later than Kakashi-sensei and this is how you act?! Fix that attitude of yours you idiot!"

"Why don't you do the same thing with your mouth, Sakura?" the blonde retorts with a sharp tone that makes Sakura flinch a little. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you. Go bother the bastard over there or contemplate on how much of a flat chest you are." He directly stands, leaving the area for further grounds.

"Mooou!" in a tantrum, Sakura kicks the dirt off the ground. "What's wrong with that idiot today? Normally he's all scheming and cheerful, now he's even worse than Ino during her period!"

Sasuke doesn't really need to know about that last part…

"What do you think happened to him, Sasuke-kun?" The pink haired kunoichi turns to him. "You used to be friends with him, right? Surely you know something?"

'You used to be friends with him' is actually a correct statement. And it strikes Sasuke right where it matters, his mind.

Years ago, he's close to Naruto. Not that they aren't now, but they were friends back then. It was back when his clan members still lived and his brother hadn't gone killing all of them. Naruto is an orphan, even he knows that back then. But what he never got to figure out was why was Naruto not living in the orphanage just like the rest of the orphans? Sasuke then learned that Naruto wasn't exactly the most like children in the orphanage or in the village for that matter. Even his own father warned him not to associate himself with the blonde. Sasuke curses his younger self from not being brave enough to question his father the reason as to why, but something tells him that even if he did question his father, he wouldn't have gotten the answer he really need. His mother was more accepting of the blonde than his father ever was. Then again, it was his mother, known for being kind to every one regardless of status and wealth. The oddest one would be his brother. Yes, even Itachi himself got something to say about the blonde.

" _He's a strong person. Even stronger than me."_

He had to make sure that he wasn't just hearing things when Itachi answered him at that time. Itachi, the genius of the Uchiha clan, admitted that a mere homeless orphan boy is stronger than him? Sasuke didn't believe Itachi at first, but Itachi had the face of someone who was not lying at that time. He's been able to tell when people are lying ever since a young age; it makes socializing hard.

" _Talk to him, be his friend and observe him. Then, you'll see what I mean."_

And talk to him, befriended him, observed him he did. He did that for four whole years and he got nothing. He watched as the blonde cause mischief and vandalism all across the village and the only thing he got out of that is experience on how to make traps. Sasuke was about to give up, until one day.

Naruto was not well liked… hell he still isn't now. He was not liked to the point where people would openly insult his name and call him an abomination. Several people the blonde pranked even threatened to kill the blonde for pulling pranks. Sasuke may be young, but even he knew that that was going too far. Death threats from pranks? If that's not going too far then he doesn't know what.

He saw Naruto shoved out of a store, beaten and then ostracized by the villagers. The one thing that shocked him was that no one even bothered helping him, in fact, they were cheering on the attackers. It took ANBUs to disperse the whole crowd and he wasn't sure whether or not they brought him to the hospital but the next day, the blonde was still smiling like the idiot he is. When asked about all the bandages around his body, he simply told them that it was from a training accident.

Sasuke didn't know whether he's an idiot, or a gullible fool.

"Maa, maa, don't blame him for being like that Sakura." Kakashi voices out his thoughts from underneath the shade of a tree. Despite speaking, his only interest is that god forsaken book of his. "Maybe something bad happened to him, who knows?"

The girl is still not satisfied, but she relaxes nonetheless. "Fine."

"So, with that settled, let's get to the point of why you're all here." Closing his book with a snap, Kakashi proceeds to pull out three slips of papers from a small satchel tied to his waist. The genins, minus Naruto who is still brooding, look at him questioningly. "I have these forms for you guys to fill in."

"What's it for, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asks, being the smartass she is.

Kakashi makes his trademark eye-smile. "I'm glad you asked." He hands two of the three forms to Sasuke and Sakura, before continuing his speech. "I believe that the three of you are ready to take your ninja career to the next level, so, I signed the three of you up for the upcoming Chunin exams!"

.

.

.

"…what?" That is Sasuke speaking in a very small voice.

"You heard me right, the three of you are going to participate in the Chunin exams!" Kakashi answers in a cheerful tone.

"Are you crazy Kakashi-sensei?!" Sakura screeches as if she's a car tire burning through the night. "We're fresh graduates! We're not ready for this!"

Sasuke silently stares at the form in his hands, reading through the words as if it's a certain music player's term and agreement form. "…'not responsible for death'… people die from these?" Sasuke demands the silver haired jonin.

"Yup, that's right." Kakashi answers with his normal tone even if the topic is about death. "Konoha will only accept the best of the best to become chunin, and what better way to prove who's the best other than involving life threatening situation in the mix?" the two genins can only stare at him blankly. "Maa, from personal experience, the first few tests weren't so bad… it's the later ones that you should be worried about."

"W-Well…" Sakura loosens the neck of her dress. "I don't know Kakashi-sensei."

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention, since I signed you guys up already, you guys can't just ditch it."

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU GIVE US THESE FORMS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!" Sakura slams the form to the ground in anger.

"Maa, maa…" Kakashi chuckles. "I'm just trying to make it official." He picks up the form that Sakura 'dropped' earlier. "You guys will need to go to the academy, yes, your alma mater as well as mine, heck I think all of us attended the academy, at exactly eight a.m sharp tomorrow at room 302. Don't be late."

"You're the last person we want to hear that from!" Both Sakura and Sasuke scream as one.

"Maa, maa…" Kakashi then turns to his lone student who is further away. "What about you Naruto?"

Naruto turns back, still with the sour expression on his face. "I'll come."

Kakashi's eye-smile squints thinner. "Good. Now, you're all dismissed, bye-bye~!" and like a magician, Kakashi disappears in a plume of smoke.

"Well that's great; we just got our death guaranteed for us." Sakura murmurs hatefully under her breath. "Aren't you worried about this, Sasuke-kun?"

"Not really." The Uchiha answers in his nonchalant manner. "This exam is necessary for me. I'm heading home now."

Sakura watches as her crush walks out of the area in a cool manner. The only ones remaining are Naruto and Sakura. Sakura's mouth thins out uncharacteristically when she's sure that her crush is out of range. Whatever awestruck, fan girly expression that is on Sakura's face falls instantaneously; she turns her head to her blonde haired teammate.

"Drop the fucking act Naruto, no one likes it when they see you act all emo and stuff."

The blonde haired teen glares at his pink haired teammate viciously. "Get bent bitch, I'm really not in the mood to deal with your yap." He then pauses for dramatic effect. "Why don't you follow prince charming to his castle of mascara and razors, huh?"

Instead of getting angry at Naruto for dissing Sasuke, Sakura scoffs like she's the one who was insulted. "Don't trigger me, idiot. It's your fault for making me keeping up this whole love-struck fangirl act."

From his spot, Naruto delivers Sakura a rightful snort of amusement. "Serves you right for losing that bet four years ago…"

Interesting story that one.

But sadly, it's a story for another day.

Sakura walks up to him, one hand on her hip. "Just wipe that look off your face, you look dumber than usual." No budge, he won't move. "Come on Naruto, cheer up, or else I'll go sic all of your exes at you."

"No need for you to do that, seeing as I met two of them the other day…" Naruto plainly retorts.

Sakura's scowl disappears. "Wait, really?" her voice sounds as if she's a mouse the whole time.

"Yeah."

"Wait, wait, wait." Refusing to believe so easily, Sakura shakes her head several times. "You met **two** of them yesterday? When?"

"One of them crashed in during dinner at the Yakini-Q restaurant. Kiba, Chouji and Shika were there." Naruto drones out almost uninterestedly, but Sakura knows it's just to mask his irritation. "The next one appeared right after I tried to chase after the first one. Kiba, Chouji and Shika were also there when that happened."

"Who're they?"

"Murakumo and Mutsu."

Sakura laughs. She laughs as if she's been breathing laughing gas that a certain clown uses on himself. Her form lurches back, akin to that of a manic evil antagonist from comic books. She keeps on going, breaking past the five second limit, ten seconds, fifteen… wow, she lasts half a minute on that laugh. It explains the wheezing and breathing that she has to do now.

"Ha… ha… ha… haha…" Sakura is sweating, she's sweating from laughter. "Murakumo and M-Mutsu-san? Tell me, which ha… ones are they again?"

Naruto is ready to leave.

"N-No, wait, I'm sorry for laughing!" The smile on your face says otherwise, Sakura-san. "S-So, which ones are they again?"

"Murakumo… is the one with the silver hair, you know, the _tsundere_?" Naruto then makes a very displeased face. "Mutsu is the… eh… _older_ one."

"…"

"…"

"Pft…!"

"GODDAMMIT IF YOU WANT TO LAUGH THEN LAUGH!" He explodes at the laughing pink haired girl before throwing his hands up in the air. "Screw this shit, I'm going home!" he walks off several miles away from the laughing girl.

Until he reaches a certain distance, he stops, cups his mouth with his hands and proceeds to shout at the laughing girl, "I SWEAR IF YOU TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS SAKURA, I'LL TELL INO ABOUT THE BUBBLEGUM INCIDENT!"

Sakura's laughter ceases, like the storm that that water walking, wine turning, bread and fish dividing dude from the book made to calm.

"Oh come on Naruto, Ino will never let me hear the end of that one!"

The Bubblegum Incident…

…it's a story, that one. Sadly though, it's also a story for another time.

* * *

"Tch…! Damn that Sakura… maybe I should tell Ino about that incident after all…" our favorite blonde haired knuckleheaded ninja grumbles out as he slips in his apartment key to unlock the door to his apartment.

He lives in a simple, but cheap apartment somewhere in the residential area of Konoha. The owner of the building doesn't hate him, as long as he pays his rent and isn't like the rest of the people here. It's not the best place to live, but it isn't exactly the worst place either. If he has to be honest, the guys living at the slums have it way worse than he does, and he's the one with the big bad fox of doom sealed into his stomach.

Walking inside, he discards his sandals and places them neatly on the rack near the entrance. With lazy steps, he makes his way towards the kitchen where he proceeds to open the refrigerator to take a quick swig of milk. As expected, there's no milk, since he hasn't bought this week's groceries. Muttering words under his breath, the tired Uzumaki moseys over to his couch and flops down the cushion.

"Maaaan…" he groans out in a complaining manner. He encountered not one but two of his exes this week and in the same day nonetheless, his sensei signed him up in an event which can get him killed and there's no milk in the fridge. "Can this day get even better?"

 **DING-DONG**

Sadly, Naruto knows nothing of Murphy's Law. Or Murphy in the first place.

Standing up, the blonde stares at his door with curious eyes. "Who the heck…?" yes, it's rare for him to get visitors, even back when he used to have girlfriends. Reluctant, the blonde's curiosity still gets the better of him. Naruto walks over the door and begins unlocking it.

"Yeah, who is i-GUBUH!" a wave if pink rushes him over and pins him down to the floor.

"Bono-chan, quick, seize his room and find whatever porn mags you can find!"

"..Whatever…"

"Ushio-chan, search his bathroom, who knows whatever skank we'll find in there!"

"E-Eh… are you really sure…? E-Eh!?... okay…"

"Oboro-chan, the kitchen, take all the cookies!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

Groaning in pain, the disgruntled blonde lets his vision his recover as he rubs the back of his hand with the feeling of weight on his abdomen. Once his vision comes to a clear, he gets an eyeful view of what's going on. Or who's on top of him.

Pink hair tied into a pair of short pigtails, rabbit hairpin and a familiar school uniform. Yeah, he knows who this is.

"Sazanami…? What the hell are ya' doing barging into my place?!" the blonde, who's still restrained, shouts demandingly.

The pink haired and sailor uniform wearing girl gives him a rightful, but playful glare. "Shut up! All your places are belong to us! Or me, in this case since we all know that nun' of my sis're gonna ever stand being a meter away from you." her glare transforms, showing a large and equally playful grin. "Nah, JK, we all know that we love ya'. Miss ya' bro, still having fun playing with girls' heart?"

Naruto scoffs, giving the girl a glare. "First of all, get off, please, you're heavy." Sazanami pouts at being called heavy, but she gets off him nonetheless. "Secondly, I don't do that anymore, I'm through with that stuff." He brushes his jacket and pants as he stands.

"Eeeeh? For realzies?! OMG gaiiiiiis!" Sazanami cries out in faux surprise. "Mah' bro's no longer lookin' for ho's yo! Looks like he's been redeemed or sumthin'!"

His left eye twitching at Sazanami's attempt of making a subtle jab at him, Naruto can no longer control himself. He steps forward and bops the girl on the head.

"Owiiie!" Again, Sazanami shows just how good of an actor she'll be. "My bro's into hitting wives, call the priest, I'm having my divorce!"

"I'll show you domestic violence if you don't pipe down!" he bursts out, shaking the room of his apartment. He then hears a loud 'bang' coming through the walls of the apartment room next to him. "See, you're disturbing my neighbors! And you're not my wife!"

Snickering as if she's gotten a good laugh, which she did, Sazanami stops her antics and returns to her usual self. Not that there's any difference or anything. "A'ight, a'ight. Take a chill pill bro."

Naruto grumbles anyway, not really in the mood of dealing with Sazanami's playful attitude after what happened the other day. "So, what are you all doing here?" he asks while making his way back to his couch. "Aren't you girls supposed to be in school or something?"

Sazanami hums before answering. "Yeah, but they dismissed us earlier today. There's like a really convenient rat infestation going and the health inspector came to check things out." she walks over to Naruto, taking the empty spot beside him. "That aside, what got'chu all broody, pissy, moody and all sorts of ey anyway? I swear, you're Akebono on her period right now."

"Oi Sazanami!" A shrill bark comes from the bedroom.

"Teehee! Sorry sis! Anyway, what happened man?"

Naruto scratches the back of his head for a few times, not answering Sazanami's question immediately. Instantly, his mood plummets from bad to worse right now. He received enough shit from Sakura earlier and he's in no mood to deal with anymore shit from Sazanami, especially Sazanami! This girl's like Ino except waaaaay worse. She's a total gossip and, what's worse, everyone will believe what she says!

"C'mon bro, don't leave me clueless here."

He won't break, not from this.

"C'mooooooon! Broooo! Bruh!"

…fuck this shit.

Slapping his palm onto his face really hard, Naruto suppresses a large sigh. Sazanami, however, takes this as a sign that she'll know what's been bothering the blonde.

"Murakumo… Mutsu-san… yesterday… friends saw…"

Sazanami instantly gives the blonde a look of sincere pity. "Oh my God, I hope none of your friends fainted when they see Mutsu-san…"

"…Kiba's still in the hospital right now; doctors said that he's still recovering from the shock."

"Meh, whatever."

Poor Kiba.

"Anyway…" Naruto speaks before Sazanami can draw this out any longer. "What are you girls doing here?" he then glares. "Are you girls seriously here to do a full scale inspection of my apartment?"

"Yup." Sazanami says with a nod. "Nah, just kidding. On the way home, we thought that it'd be a good idea to visit you after so many months of separation." She smirks naughtily, leaning on the blonde, letting him feel her womanly appendages. "You're glad that four beautiful maidens come to visit the lonely you in your equally lonely home? You naughty, naughty boy~"

"I'll seriously hit you if you don't stop that." Naruto bluntly warns.

"Hehe~!" Sazanami giggles, not letting go of Naruto even a little bit. "We also brought stuffs to make dinner with, so we'll be using your kitchen to cook, hope you don't mind."

"What if I say that I do mind?" Naruto asks with a raised eyebrow.

Sazanami gives him a daring look. "You really want to miss out on Ushio's cooking?"

"…good point."

As if to interrupt their cozy chat, Oboro returns from the kitchen carrying a jar full of cookies. Sazanami's eyes beam at the sight of the cookie jar and immediately snacks on some the moment Oboro places the jar on the coffee table.

"Hey, Naru." Oboro greets as she walks towards him.

"Hm, wassu-" _Chu~_ "-p… you… you do realize that doing something like that isn't normal anymore, right?" he looks blinkingly at the bandaged girl, pointing at his right cheek, the spot where she has just kissed him.

Oboro giggles, taking the other spot next to him. "It's fine isn't it? We used to do it when we were kids after all."

Her words manage to get Naruto all red and flushed on the face. "…shut up…" he mumbles out, embarrassed. Oboro giggles even more, seeing the kind of expression that her childhood friend is making. Meanwhile, Sazanami's halfway on emptying Naruto's cookie jar.

"Oi Sazanami, don't eat too much cookies. We're having dinner here…" her eyes transforms into a rightful glare. "And you, shitty whiskers, stop flirting with my sister."

Naruto's embarrassment transforms to irritation. He scowls, eyes glaring at the purple haired girl in front of him. "Haaah? What's that _Bono-tan_ , I don't speak BITCHLISH!"

"YOU LITTLE…!"

"LOOK WHO'S TALKING!" Naruto aims his finger. And he's aiming at Akebono's chest.

"WHA-?! **YOU….!** "

"A-ANO…!"

A pair of blonde and violet pauses from their heated bickering to turn towards the third voice and a shy, timid black haired girl peeks out from the bathroom door. Her face, as cute as it is, is way cuter with the way it's blushing hard. Now being in the center of attention, Ushio eeps shyly, hiding her face halfway behind the bathroom's door.

"Eh… Naruto-kun… there's… eh…" she's not really good in speaking it seems. "T-There's a… there'sagirl'sunderwearinhere!" she blurts out quicker than you can say ramen.

"WHHAAMPH?!" Sazanami shouts in disbelief with a mouthful of chocolate chip cookies. It's amazing how she's not choking right now. She gives her blonde haired friend a mischievous look, her eyes akin to that of a Christmas tree. "Who you bween livmwing wif here bruh?"

"No one!" Naruto gripes. "And swallow already!"

Sazanami swallows the cookies, and then wipes her mouth clear of cookie crumbs with her sleeve. "Really? Well, let me be the judge of that!" she then shouts over to Ushio who's still in the bathroom. "Hey Ushio-chan, bring out the undies 'ere!"

Ushio comes out of the bathroom, holding a piece of silk fabric in her hands. Obviously, she's redder than any tomatoes that anyone has ever seen and it seems that her face will remain like that until someone takes the piece of fabric away from her. Fortunately for Ushio, Sazanami is there to take the piece of fabric from her.

"Ohohoho!" the pink haired girl is examining the fabric as if it's the world's most precious treasure itself. "Look at this design… this material…! So risqué!" risqué… would be underestimating it. In fact, what's in Sazanami's hands cannot be called panty at all. It's just some strings with two triangular pads for cover.

"W-W-Wha-!?" Akebono recoils now that she's seeing it in its full form. "You shameless shitty whiskers!"

"Hey!"

"Hm…" Oboro is examining the clothing with a serious look. "So Naru likes those sorts of stuff, eh?"

"Yes! I-I mean, no!"

"Uwaah… Naruto-kun… um… Naruto-kun is a boy after all…"

"Please don't look at me with those kinds of eyes, Ushio!"

Undisturbed by Naruto's straight man retorts, Sazanami is still holding the g-string. "Hmm… but really though, it takes a special kind'a woman to wear sumthin' like 'dis." For some reason, she turns her head facing Ushio. "You sure this ain't yours, Ushio-chan? Maybe you forgot 'bout them the last time you visited our bro here?"

"N-NO! I'd never wear something as revealing as that!" the bustiest of the four sisters shrieks in embarrassment.

Akebono narrows her eyes at her big chested sister. "…I beg to differ…"

"A-Akebono-chan!" Ushio bashes at her sister's words.

Oboro, unaffected by the whole underwear ordeal, merely stands from her seat. "Well, if that's done with, why don't we begin on making dinner? Come, Ushio-chan, I'll help you out."

"A-Ah," seeing that Oboro has brought the topic of ordeal to a temporary silence, Ushio feels a little glad. "Yes!"

Both Ushio and Oboro walk off the scene and into the kitchen, preparing to make dinner for all five of them. Meanwhile, the living room is still occupied by three people and two of them are still in a heated argument over the panties.

"I told you, I didn't steal them!"

"Like hell I'll believe that! I bet you took whatever underwear your exes were wearing when they visit, huh, didn't you?"

"Ohoho… hmm… tis' such a fine piece of clothing…"

Yeah, they're beyond help.

* * *

Konoha is actually quieter than what she thought it would be. Nagato's first thought of Konoha is that it would be filled with ninjas doing whatever fancy tricks that ninjas do, but maybe that's a little bit too farfetched. This is her second day in Konoha and she'll need more time to readjust to life in here. So far, she's only known where the shopping district is, but that's okay since the locals are helpful.

Especially the men.

Nagato is walking through a busy evening Konoha street, people walking past or along around her. It's nowhere as busy as the Capital, but the population density is quite something. This amount of people could easily equalize the amount of people living in one of the busiest part of the Capital! Truly, this place is certainly amazing. What's more, the hot springs here are said to be the best in Fire Country, now she knows why her sister moved here all those years ago.

Currently, Nagato is out to have dinner with her dearest sister. They're meeting at a place called Ichiraku Ramen. Nagato doesn't really mind having ramen for dinner, but it's odd to be invited to a dinner with ramen as the main dish. If she remembers correctly, her sister's instruction says that the shop is not that far from here, so it should be easy to find. Still, easier said than done… Konoha isn't as small as she thought it would be.

"Hm…" the unusually tall woman frowns. "Looks like I'll spend more time searching for the place than what I thought…" she should've brought that instructions manual she got from her sister the other day, but she doubts that it'll be useful anyway, with how poor her land navigation skills are.

After several more minutes of walking, Nagato stumbles upon a rather crowded section of the district, it's like one road dedicated to street foods and stuffs. There're a lot of stands around, making her searching even harder. She walks through the sea of people, parting through them in silence. It seems that her sister wasn't lying when she said that Konoha is like a village dedicated to festivals, because the atmosphere around her seems like so.

There's a lot of variety of foods being sold here. From classics like Takoyaki to small tea houses and cake shops, almost like this entire road is having a festival of its own. Nagato searches around, if anything, she's doing so with her intuition. It's surprising just how well intuition works sometimes. Hell, it's one of the things that have been keeping her alive, though it might not work as well in here as it does in the Capital, knowing that the guards here are ninjas.

Just why did she decide on coming to Konoha anyway?

"Ah, here it is."

Stopping dead on her tracks, the black haired beauty has somehow ended up right at her destination. She stares at the cloth like drapes that spells out 'Ichiraku Ramen' in Katakana. No wonder that this place is hard to find, it's not as emphasized as the rest of the stores in this place. In fact, it's placed so far back that everyone probably missed it.

Nagato stares at the ramen shop for a little bit longer, before she takes the first step inside.

"Welcome!" a jolly cheer belonging to that of a middle aged man comes from the back kitchen area, greeting her entry. "Ayame! We got another customer!"

"Coming!" this time, a younger and obviously much more feminine voice follows up after the previous one. A brown haired girl dressed in a waitress's uniform appears from the back. "Ah, welcome to Ichiraku Ramen, would you like to order?"

Nagato takes a seat on one of the stools first before actually speaking. "I'm waiting for someone, so I'll just order water first."

Ayame nods. "Coming right up, please wait."

While Ayame returns to the kitchen to fetch her water, Nagato inspects the stand. It's not big, quite a decent sized for a street side stand, but just above the usual standards. If she's right, then this stand is connected to the house, explaining why there's a kitchen in the first place. Not a bad place to start a business.

"Ah…" Nagato snaps herself out from her musings. "There I go again…"

"There you go again what?"

A person takes the empty stool to Nagato's left side, sitting down quietly. Nagato nearly jumps back in surprise when she hears the voice, but she manages to refrain from doing so. Sitting next to her is another woman of similar height, but different style. Unlike Nagato's plain t-shirt and jeans combo, she's dressed in a loose purple sleeveless blouse with a pair of rugged denim hotpants. She also wears a necklace around her neck, but not the type that she'd want to wear in a crowded place like this. The woman waves her hand at Nagato, smiling.

"Good to know that you're able to find your way here, Nee-san."

Nagato scoffs. "Yeah, no thanks to you… Mutsu."

Mutsu giggles, waving her elder sister's glare away as if it's nothing. "Ara, ara~ let's not sweat over the minor stuffs, alright? So, how about ordering some food?" Mutsu then calls the waitress. "Ayame-chan~! We're ready to order!"

"Coming!"

Nagato looks at her sister quizzically. "You eat here often? I didn't know that you're a big fan of ramen before, seeing as how you rarely eat them back in the Capital."

Instead of just a chorus of giggles that she's expecting from Mutsu, Nagato gets to see a rare nostalgic expression on her sister's face. "Let's just say that a little fox got me hooked on ramen a long time ago."

Raising an eyebrow, Nagato is curious, but she gets the feeling that she won't be able to cough it out of her sister. "Okaaay, so, what do you want to talk about?"

"Nothing really." Mutsu says. "I just want to spend an evening dinner with my precious older sister, is that wrong?"

If Nagato is a humorous person, she would have laughed right there. "…It's… not." She takes a moment to rephrase her words. "But why today, all of a sudden? And why not just come over?"

"Aside from the reason that I want to eat ramen this evening…" Mutsu trails off. "I also want to let all the piled up stress from work free." She smiles cheekily. "And ramen's just the thing for that."

"Let me guess, this little fox is suggested that?"

"You could say that."

Ayame comes back to the front with a tray of water for Nagato. Placing the water on the table, she then takes out a small notepad. "So, what would you like to order? The usual for you, Mutsu-san?"

The brown haired woman smiles while nodding. "Yes dear, and make it extra spicy, okay?"

"One spicy shrimp ramen… and you, miss customer?" she turns over to Nagato.

Taking a moment to browse the menu, Nagato does so carefully. "I'll have the…" there's quite a lot choices. From beef to chicken, from pork to seafood-

Seafood.

Sea.

 _Sea._

 **Sea.**

"…"

"Miss… customer?"

"Ah, I… eh… I'll…" like a light bulb flickering back to life, Nagato's eyes quickly readjust themselves back to the menu. "I'll take the tonkotsu miso special." Folding the menu close, she hands it back to the waitress. "…make it spicy, too."

"All right, please wait while your orders are prepared." Ayame excuses herself before returning to the kitchen to give her fathers the orders.

Nagato releases a long and heavy sigh, one that she seems to be doing a lot these days. She slumps over the small table, using her hands to support her head. Her bangs hide her eyes, and her shoulders sagged a little bit. Mutsu watches this with a small but identifiable frown on her face.

"Are you okay, Nee-san?" the little sister of the two asks with a worried tone.

"I'm fine." Nagato responds, but Mutsu knows that she's not. "Just… tired, that's all."

Under normal circumstances, Mutsu would've accepted her half-baked answer. But it seems that now isn't one of those times. "Is it about your old job?"

Mutsu doesn't have to be a Hyuuga to see that Nagato has just flinched. The younger sister keeps silent for a few seconds, before resuming. "Is that why you came to Konoha? To forget?"

"Not forget… more like avoid." Nagato raises her head back, but her faraway look remains. "I'm not through with this just yet. Forgetting means everything's been dealt with, but my situation isn't."

Keeping silent, Mutsu says nothing.

"Maybe I'm also here to forget… but how can you forget your own mistakes?" there's really no helping her sister when she's like this. Mutsu knows her older sister too well to know that she'll just keep on talking like this for the next few hours. But really, the best thing she can do is not stop her. Why? Because she needs to release it.

Fortunately though, Mutsu just know one thing to make her forget her worries temporarily.

"Our foods are here, let's eat first, Nagato-nee." Patting her sister on the back, Mutsu's other hand picks up two pairs of chopsticks from the holder on the table. "Here you go."

Grabbing the chopsticks that her sister handed to her, Nagato carefully breaks it into equal length. Staring down at the steaming bowl of tonkotsu miso ramen, Nagato cannot see her reflection on the broth. That suggests just how rich the soup is. All toppings are accounted for; the pork belly cutlets, menma, narutomaki, soft boiled egg, seaweed and beansprouts.

"Come on, dig in, Nee-san." Mutsu says while scooping the broth with her spoon. "You don't want to eat a cold ramen."

Not knowing what else to say, Nagato can only comply and dig in.

"Hm. Delicious."

"Ufufufu. Isn't it?"

* * *

"Uwaaaah… that was the best dinner I ever had in the past few weeks." In his apartment, having just finished dinner, Naruto yawns as he pats his full stomach which has been filled with Ushio's wonderful cooking.

"IKR?" Sazanami flops down the couch, next to the blonde, patting an equally full stomach. "Why don't you go and marry Ushio-chan when you're older, bro? That way, we can come over every day and eat her cooking without looking like total moochers!" she points out.

"You'll still look like moochers if you do that, Sazanami." Naruto answers in a deadpanned manner. "Besides, you don't have to wait for me to get married to Ushio or anything like that. You can just come over here and cook just like what we did today."

"And let you eat Ushio's cooking too? Cheeky."

"Hey, all's fair in love and…" his face looks confused, as he tries to find the right word. "…hunger?"

Akebono walks in on the duo of blonde and pinknette having their chat, an annoyed look showing on her face. "I don't know how you two are going along so well… I won't stand a second being near the shitty whiskers."

"Maa, Akebono-chan, you'll get used to it when you hang around bro often." Sazanami says.

"Oi! Don't talk as if I'm not here."

Pouting, Akebono walks back into the kitchen, and in the kitchen, she checks in on Ushio and Oboro who're still doing the dishes. "Do you guys need any help?"

"No, it's fine Akebono-chan." Ushio says as she scrubs a plate clean with a soapy sponge. "We're almost done here."

"Same here, I'll be done when Ushio-chan's done." Oboro says while wiping several plates dry with a towel. "Ah, Naru?" She raises her voice, so that the blonde in the living room could hear her. "Can you turn on the TV? There's something that I want to watch."

"Okay!" he shouts from the living room, followed by the sound of the TV being turned on. "It's already on!"

"Thanks!" Oboro replies.

Turning off the tap, Ushio suddenly giggles, sparking curiosity to her two sisters who are in the kitchen with her. Akebono looks at Ushio weirdly, asking, "What is it?"

"Nothing. Ufufufu." Ushio giggles softly after answering. "It feels like all of us are married to Naruto at the same time, no?"

If Akebono's been drinking, then she'd do one hell of a spit take. But fortunately, she's not drinking, but that doesn't stop her from doing one. "WH-WH-WH-WHAT?!" The purple haired girl recoils back in surprise, nearly falling to her back. "M-M-M-MARRIED?!" she's so red in the face that it's almost adorable. "Who would want to get married with the shitty whiskers?!"

"Goddammit Akebono, can you please stop talking as if I'm not here?!"

But she ignores him. Sazanami, who is still with Naruto on the couch, pipes into the conversation. "Ooh! Now that I think about it, yer' right!" she nudges Naruto, winking flirtatiously. "Ne, ne, Master, when's the honeymoon coming? Ne, ne~?"

Naruto sends her a freezing glare. "When pigs fly, and don't call me master it's so…" his face scrunches into something that he would make if he has just eaten something sour. "…ew. Icky, filthy, ew."

The pink haired girl pouts at being denied her chance of a joke. "Aw, you should learn how to role-play once in a while, bro." Then her mischievous look returns. "Or are you only into RPing when it's on the bed, eh?"

If he can do it, he'll rip out his hair right here and there. "…haah… whatever you say Sazanami, whatever you say." Naruto drones out, no longer in the mood to deal with Sazanmi's antics. His eyes then land on the TV screen, seeing as he's just turned it on. "Hey Oboro, are you gonna use the TV or what?"

"Coming!" small pitter-patters come echoing from the kitchen and Oboro soon emerges from the area. She walks over to Naruto who's seated side by side with Sazanami. Seeing that there's an empty spot next to Naruto, she immediately occupies that spot. Ushio and surprisingly Akebono join the rest at the living room.

" _Hello minna~! Are you ready for some fun this evening~!"_ the TV shows a teenage girl, probably three years older than all of them standing on a stage dressed in a very cute and bedazzling dress like attire. She's also holding a mic, and her bun-tied-hair seems to fit her well. She's smiling as if she's the only thing to focus on stage, which is true, since she's an idol.

"Eeeeh…?" Naruto drones out with mild surprise. "So Oboro's into something like this, eh?"

"Not really." Said girl speaks up. "While Naka-chan's songs are good, I'm more of a slow-rock type of person. Naka-chan's upbeat, hip-hop music is just too fast for me." she says sheepishly.

"Hmm…" eyes transforming to that of a cat's, Sazanami then leers at her purple haired sister a sly look. "But I know who's into this type of music, or Naka-chan to be more specific~"

For some reason, Akebono looks away.

"Ah, but there's no denying that Naka-chan-san is really cute." Ushio comments as she and the rest watch Naka perform on stage. "She has a nice smile and she's cheerful too."

"You also have a nice smile, Ushio." Oboro says. "If you try harder, I'm sure that you can be as cheerful as Naka-chan."

"Eh…! Ah… I guess…" the busty girl shies away at hearing her sister's opinion.

"Still… I can't believe that our shy little Ushio will be able to speak with our bro here without fainting like she used to." Sazanami says, teasing Ushio a little bit.

Just like someone we all know…

"S-Sazanami-chan!"

"Aw, look at her, she's blushin' up a storm!"

Again, just like someone we all know.

"M-Mou…"

Meanwhile, Naruto is actually finding this whole idol thing interesting. He can see why people would dig into stuffs like this. Aside from the cute idol herself, the song is not that bad, but it's still a little bit too cheesy for him. All this stuff about love at first sight and special feelings, it's weird how he's never felt anything like that despite having been in several relationships. Maybe he never did get the hang of being a boyfriend.

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, how's your ninja job doin', bro? Fought any bad guys yet?" out of blue, Sazanami's sudden question manages to snap him out of his trance.

"Eh? Ninja? Ah, yeah, I fought several people." He admits, seeing as there's really nothing to hide. "I was away for a long term mission about a month ago, and we got to meet two interesting people." He shows a smile, but nothing spells cheerful. "They're both good people, too bad that we had to… eh… say _goodbye_ to them though."

All four girls in the room immediately realize what Naruto means by 'goodbye'. All traces of previous excitement and interest disappear, leaving behind a tense and almost guilty atmosphere.

"O-Oh." It's rare to see Sazanami silent. "Are you okay?" she asks in a small voice.

"The first few weeks?" he decides that being subtle is no longer an option since Sazanami pushes the topic back up. "It was hell. Couldn't sleep, couldn't eat meat and I couldn't even think properly." He sighs, shaking his head in the process. "But it's a good thing that the rehab we all went through works like a charm. I can **at least** sleep properly now."

So that's why he left out all the meat during dinner…

"…" Ushio lowers her head, not really looking forward to say much less hear anything regarding the story.

"Are you really okay?" unlike Sazanami's subtle concern, Oboro is far less subtle. "Are you really, really okay? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"No, I'm fine." He reassures her, but he knows that it won't do. "I've always healed quickly ever since I was small, you know this."

True.

Naruto is a huge troublemaker even when he's younger, so getting into fights is just like any other Thursdays for him. He'd always come up all bloody and bruised. He went to the hospital, yeah, but only to get some minor treatment like disinfection and stitches like that. The next day, he's good as new, as if the fights have never happened in the first place. She didn't really put much thought into it, seeing as there's really nothing worth questioning about it. But now… she's really curious.

"Heh, serves you right for getting your ass handed to you, shitty whiskers…"Akebono mutters audibly just before looking away.

Everyone turns their head at the griping purple haired girl. Oboro is about to apprehend her sister, but Naruto stops her. He gives her a silent 'it's fine' look, and Oboro relaxes. "Yeah, whatever you say." He dismisses her comment as if it was nothing. "Anyway, not to sound rude or anything, isn't it about time you girls go home?" he checks the clock, and it's reading 7 p.m sharp. "It's quite late."

Maybe it's because of Akebono's earlier comment, or maybe it's because of the time. But whichever it is, Oboro seems to be eager on going home. "Oh yeah, it's already late. Come on guys, let's get our things, we have school tomorrow."

"Eh? But it's just seven!"

"We have school tomorrow. So-"

"It's still seven!"

"We have school tomorrow!"

"Awww… a'ight, there's no helping it." Rising up, Sazanami gives Naruto a quick peck on the cheek before rushing off to the front door. "G'nigt bro, don't rub it out too hard okay?"

"Oi!"

"A-Ah… goodnight, Naruto." Ushio does a very formal bow, an action that emphasizes her… eh… _her's_!

"Y-Yeah… goodnight."

Akebono walks out of the door without saying anything, prompting Oboro to sigh. "That girl… if she's only more honest with herself…" she gives Naruto an apologetic smile. "Please don't get mad at her, okay Naru?"

"Mad? Nah, I know that she can be… hard to deal with" that's underestimating it. "but I've dealt with girls her type before." A nostalgic smile appears on his face, as he remembers a certain white haired girl. "It's fine, Oboro, really."

"Okay then…" Oboro nods, she turns to leave but she stops immediately. "Ah, almost forgot!"

With quick steps, she pecks him on the other cheek, opposite to the one that Sazanami pecked earlier. Stunned, he remains like that for several seconds. "You sisters seem awfully in sync…" he mutters.

"Ehehe." Oboro smiles one last time, now already near the door. "We're sisters after all. Goodnight Naru." She closes the door and once it's closed, she leans her forehead on the door. "Love you…." It's nothing more than a wistful whisper, a foolish dream of a high school girl.

"Oi, Oboro-chan, c'mon let's go!"

"Coming!"

But even so, there's no telling when wishes can come true.

* * *

 **Whew, the second chapter for this story and I'm already starting the Chunin Exams Arc already? Fuck me.**

 **You guys must be curious about, well, everything. Well, I can't blame you. This story will be told in a different manner. Instead of me writing out flashbacks in an active manner, most of it will be a part of the narration. I personally think that having a lot of flashback will make things a little bit too wordy for my liking, so I'll have to use passive writing for that.**

 **You must be wondering just how in the hell does a twelve year old kid like Naruto managed to get, so far, two exes in such a young age? He must be younger when the time he dated them... is what you're thinking. Well, ladies and gents, let me tell you that things will be reaching the climax of the story when I decide to open that part up. The thing is, let this story progress for a while, it's still too early for you guys to be making conclusions, but keep on wondering wonderer, because it'll be a long time before we'll even touch that at all.**

 **Oh and on a completely unrelated note, I had Sushi for dinner two nights ago and now I'm typing this with a shitty laptop in the hospital, yay!**

 **No, seriously, I got food poisoning and it's bad… I cannot count the number of times I went to the toilet… even today's.**


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